The painting depicts an old woman rebuking a young man who is responsible for having broken the eggs in the basket of a servant girl who sits dejectedly on the floor. It is the first of many paintings by Greuze where he uses broken objects as …

At the Salon of 1757, a critic even declared that the pose of this young servant girl, whose loss of virginity is symbolized by the broken eggs, was worthy of a history painter. Greuze struck upon such subjects, based in part on seventeenth-century Dutch painting, while still a student in Rome, though he would spend the next decades stubbornly ...

The canvas was painted in Rome, but the principal source may have been a seventeenth-century Dutch work by Frans van Mieris the Elder (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), which Greuze would have known from an engraving. The broken eggs …

Broken Eggs. Richly detailed, Greuze's painting is centered on a young woman, her hands clasped, seated in a sparsely furnished room. Beside her is a basket and several broken eggs scattered across the floor.

In Broken Eggs, the behavior of the blond boy in the lower right corner elucidates the event. His elliptical expression (for what can so young a child know?) encourages the viewer to think darkly about the connection between the pretty girl, the remonstrating crone, …

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"Broken Eggs", painted by Jean-Baptiste Greuze in 1756, is an exemplary work of the Rococo period, executed in oil on canvas. The painting is renowned for its narrative quality, depicting a domestic scene that subtly conveys themes of innocence and moral lessons.

The broken eggs symbolize the loss of the girl's virginity. (Source: [link=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436579]The Metropolitan Museum of Art[/link])

Information about the painting, location, other paintings of the artist. Album: Metropolitan Museum: part 1, #304/358.

Broken Eggs is a mid 18th century painting by French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts a family discussing "broken eggs", which may be a metaphor for the loss of the young girl's virginity. The work is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of …